Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-19
SEA COAST DRFRNsEs.

Major w. R. King, United States
 Engineer, CelIs About Them at
 Sheffield Hall-A Lecture Most Val
 uable and Interchangeable Hall
 Filled.
 Major w. R. King, a United States engin- eer, delivered most interesting and able lecture at Sheffield Scientific ball last night to large audience, his subject being s'Sea Coast Defenses." The position as engineer that Major King held made him an available man to speak on this subject. Interspersed throughout his lecture he said many humor eus things bearing on the subject. Some of the things Major King said are as follows:
 The speaker after summing up the ques- tions have we a right to and do we need ad- ditional sea coast defenses, and deciding them in the affirmative and after showing further tha. though great and mighty and isolated 'tfrom the rest of mankind" ," we are still liable to attack and without proper de- lenses might suffer greatly, the speaker went on to say: At least one half of the 300, 900 lives and $S, S,OO0, ,O00, ,0O0 expended by the North alone, in surpressing the great rebellion could have been saved by comparatively trifing expenditure before, and in the early part of the war. The speaker then well held that if Columbia ever gets attacked it will be from the sea first and not the land.
 The speaker gave detailed description of ships of various nations and as to what they are all like. Some stereoptieon views of ships, guns; etc., were shown.
 What kind Of defenses will most effectual- ly guard as against such fleets? This ques- tion has been referred within the last three years to no less than three special boards of engineers and other officers supposed to be e., ur1kh c11h1 viz hn foundry board, the armament board and the Notifications board. All of these boards, as well the board of engineers for Notifications, which has been studying the subject for sev- eral years, agree that we must have large number of the most powerful guns and nor tars that can be made, mounted on the most ipyulnerable turrets or on disappearing car riages behind heavy earthe-n parapets; these guns to bear on the approaches to our principal harbors and to be supplemented by torpedoes and floating constructions to hold the enemy under fire as long as possibl The board of Notifications of which the present Secretary of War was president, gives in the order of the urgency of the case list of twenty-six principal seaports that should be strongly fortified, commencing with No. 1, as New York, and winding up with New Haven as 27. We need not attempt the entire coast, for the reason
 
 he will not attack sparsely settled coasts or even small towns. Our forts must therefore be located at the entrances to ou1 great har bors where the accumulation of great wealth invites attack. Our line of defense should be ten or twelve miles from any valuable property liable to destruction by shot or shells. This is not always possible, as, for example, at Portland, Me, where the open sea is only five miles from the city, and Brooklyn is getting dangerously near the southern shore of Long Island.
 Forts should be strong enough in offensive powers Cor guns) to drive off a fleet before their defensive power Cor armor, parapets, etc. are destroyed. For this purpose they must have guns at least equal in number, range and power to any that the fleet can bring against them. These guns should be spread over as large an area as possible so as to distract the enemy's fire and annoy them them by a converging fire from several di- rections at once.
 The guns and gunners must be protected, not by strong walls as formerly, but by earthen parapets and in some cases by iron shield and turrets. Guns can be mounted so as to disappear behind the parapet the in- staot they are fired and remain concealed un- til loaded and ready to fire again.
 The speaker dwelt op the auxiliary de- fenses-the torpedoes. He told of the con- dition and value of our present system of de- lenses and in what manifestly inefficient state it is. He said they were not quite as worthless as some have represented them. They have some utility. He said the esti- mated cost of a thorough system of coast de- lenses for the United States is set down at over $1OO,OO0,000, but this sum, large as it may seem, is a mere trifle when compared with the interests involved, or compared with the wealth resources of the country. To take one view of the subject, the value of destructible property in New York city and it's suburbs is over S2, 500, ,OOO, 900, or four-tenths of the risk involved. The example of intelligent foreign nations is not to be despised in mat ters of this kind, although we claim to be an exception to nearly all rules 8 nation.
 Major King gave several reasons as to why our sea coast defenses had been so badly neglected